Glen's benchGlen's benchThu, 22 Feb 2018 04:31:32 +0000Thu, 22 Feb 2018 04:31:32 +0000Glen's benchhttp://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php
Every household.....Sun, 21 Jan 2018 02:14:35 +0000http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/every-household.3377/
http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/every-household.3377/invalid@example.com (Glen)GlenLet me tell you a story – a story about a .30-06, some cast bullets, and a damn good friend. My buddy Dave and I got pushed into retirement at about the same time, so it just made sense that we took advantage of that fact and we would get together for breakfast on a regular basis, then go out and spend the rest of the morning shooting whatever project(s) we were working on at the time. During one of these shooting sessions, I was working with my...

The good Lord has blessed me with a number of colorful characters that have made my life rich beyond all expectation. Some have been wise, some have been funny, some have been salty, and some have been……well….colorful. They have all taught me something, made me wiser, and several have left me laughing years after deaths. This is the story of a very special sixgun, one that vanished mysteriously...

In 1894, the Swedish Army adopted a new bolt-action rifle chambered for a new 6.5x55 cartridge. This cartridge would serve until the early 1960s, and would be used by sportsmen (both hunters and long-range target shooters) well into the 21st century. The original ammunition for the 6.5x55 had 160 grain RN at about 2400 fps. This was later changed to a 139-140 grain spitzer at about 2600 fps. One way to think of...

An interesting thought occurred to me last night. I started hunting with handguns back in the 1980s, and very quickly fell in love with the Thompson-Center Contender. My first Contender was a used 14” barreled .22 Long Rifle that was on sale in the local gun shop. It came with an old, tired Bushnell Phantom 1.5x scope, and the crosshairs were a little crooked. The price was very friendly, so I bought the Contender, some ammo...

It was a warm evening in late August, about an hour before sunset. I was out at a local gravel pit, test-firing a new (to me) .22 Contender. I had recently moved to the Pacific Northwest, and this Contender was my present to myself to celebrate my new job. A silver Pontiac pulled in to the neighboring gravel pit below me, and I saw the driver get out and go around to the passenger side of the car and start rooting around for something...

For our first anniversary, my wife wanted to get me something special, something that I would use, something that would contribute to my shooting, but she didn’t want to buy me a gun or a bullet mould because she “would get the wrong one”. Well, I heard through the grapevine that the local scrap metal yard had some pelletized 90% tin solder that they were selling for $5 a pound, so I told her about that, and we went down to the scrapyard, and she bought...

Lyle's Tin]]>0Cast Bullet Varmint HuntingSun, 26 Jun 2016 01:38:11 +0000http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/cast-bullet-varmint-hunting.1385/
http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/cast-bullet-varmint-hunting.1385/invalid@example.com (Glen)GlenLike many bullet casters, I got started by casting for the .38 Special. Soon I added the .45ACP and .44 Magnum, and before too long I was casting for rifle cartridges like the .35 Remington and .35 Whelen. But at this point in my life (late 1980s), cast bullets were simply a cheap, easy way for me to shoot more, and my serious hunting loads were built around jacketed bullets. When I got bitten by the handgun hunting bug, and started playing with wildcat cartridges and the Thompson-Center...

Cast Bullet Varmint Hunting]]>0The Golden Age of Bullet CastingSat, 25 Jun 2016 22:23:06 +0000http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/the-golden-age-of-bullet-casting.1382/
http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/the-golden-age-of-bullet-casting.1382/invalid@example.com (Glen)GlenIn the first half of the 20th century, to be a serious handgunner, required one to be a handloader, and to be a handloader during this timeframe pretty much required one to be a bullet caster. The early days of bullet casting were dominated by names like Ideal, Hensley & Gibbs, Belding & Mull, and Lachmiller. As we moved into the latter parts of the 20th century, reloading components (and ammunition) became more readily available, making it easier to shoot in volume without necessarily...

The Golden Age of Bullet Casting]]>0The Ugly DucklingSat, 25 Jun 2016 21:53:54 +0000http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/the-ugly-duckling.1381/
http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/the-ugly-duckling.1381/invalid@example.com (Glen)GlenAbout 15 years ago, I bought a group of Contender barrels from an estate sale. A couple of them were used to make some very interesting wildcat barrels, but one that never got much love was a 10" .30-30 barrel. In many ways, the 10” .30-30 is a very limited gun – an ugly duckling, if you will. I suspect that the standard weight jacketed bullets are going too slow to expand, leaving only the lighter bullets (like the 125 Ballistic Tip) useful for hunting. While cast bullets group just fine...